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SVI broken barrel lug..?!


ChrisRR

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So my meticulously maintained SVI of three years and ~20k rounds 170PF (IPSC) has a cracked lower barrel lug.  I'm assuming the SVI factory lifetime warranty will take care of this?
 
 
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Wow


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I know of several Infinitys that have had this exact same failure. 

Most of them were much lower round counts however. 

 

Whether they were fixed under warranty or not I can't say but I think I remember hearing something about a bad batch of steel may have been the cause. 

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4 hours ago, waktasz said:

I heard it's because of the way they were fitted and that they don't do it that way anymore

 

Huh, that's seems uncharacteristic of SVI.  Sounds like the issue is sorted however so I can have confidence in the brand once this is fixed.

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Fitted super tight, not fitted badly, causing it to develop stress fractures. But that's just what I heard from a guy that knows the guy who broke his gun on my stage at that match...so maybe I am repeating it poorly.

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On 7/11/2018 at 9:54 PM, waktasz said:

Fitted super tight, not fitted badly, causing it to develop stress fractures. But that's just what I heard from a guy that knows the guy who broke his gun on my stage at that match...so maybe I am repeating it poorly.

 

It's not a matter of how tight anything fits.  Either it's fit properly or it's not.  Even if it's fit with absolute minimum tolerances, there's no reason for a major failure like that. From the single photo that's posted, It looks like there's good, uniform contact on the VIS, and no peening on the top lugs.  That would suggest there was sufficient link down clearance on top and the barrel impacting the frame on the rear of the lug (vs. the stopping on the link) as it should.  That would also support the possibility of defective material (or process).  But that's just speculation on the basis of one photo.

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On 7/14/2018 at 11:18 PM, 38super said:

Look in the lower lug pocket in the frame for hammering.  Measure the barrel link big end (0.200") for stretch just to be sure.

Read thru this after the new barrel is fitted.

http://www.blindhogg.com/gunsmith/barrel.html

I think measuring this area will no longer be possible given that the lower lug already cracked and dimensions are now different.

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Thanks for the replies.  I'm still working on how best to get this repaired - does anyone know what the SVI warranty policy is?  I would assume that a pistol such as this should not experience a failure of this type even at 100k rounds.  The fact that several have broken in this manner early in their lives clearly points to an issue in manufacturing/fitting.  The latest SVI pistols have a recoil buffer fitted from the factory - I wonder if this is related?

Edited by ChrisRR
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Outside of a way undersprung gun that’s causing slide velocity to be way excessive, can’t think of anything else on the user end that would cause this type of failure besides a manufacturing defect.

 

”Hard fitting” a barrel won’t cause this either...

 

In my own uninformed opinion, I’d either guess  the barrel wasn’t fit right where the barrel bed / horizontal shelf wasn’t helping to stop rearward movement of the barrel during link down due to too early of impact on the VIS... Or bad heat treatment of the barrel, which is far more likely...

 

While GI 1911 prints don’t specifically indicate this as a requirement, there should be a clear witness mark on the horizontal shelf / barrel bed where the barrel cams down onto & should impact at the same time the lower lug hits the VIS. This is beneficial for long(er) lower lug life as it changes the vector that force is applied to the barrel, where much less shear force is placed on the lower lug in a parrellel direction to the barrel because the total force is split & directed slightly upward at some angle I’m too lazy to calculate due to the horizontal barrel bed taking a percentage of the force applied.

 

Fun fact, barrels that break their link are usually caused by the horizontal barrel bed impacting the bottom of the barrel before the VIS & lower lug stops rearward movement, where the link is what stops rearward movement of the barrel... Conversely, barrels that don’t impact the barrel bed very much because they hit the VIS prematurely, are known to shear the lower lugs before the service life of the barrel is reached (along w/ other problems that crop up after 10’s of thousands of rounds)...

Edited by SPL15
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That was my thought, but perhaps I'm wrong.  Aside from standard maintenance and not running excessive pressures/powers I'm not aware of a way to ensure greater longevity.  My old Paraordnance P1640 has perhaps 50k rounds through it now (though it has a new owner).  I help keep it in running order for him - the things that have broken have been the extractor and ejector - nothing too unusual there.  Its not a tight fit gun like the SVI but it shoots straight enough.

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Update.  I heard from SVI -  I was mistaken about the lifetime warranty on their pistols for breakages of this type. I'm not sure why I thought that... My 3 year old pistol is out of warranty it seems (so standard warranty must be 1-2 years) but the goods news is that breakages of this type are repaired for free by SVI at their discretion/under good faith. 

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It looks like with the shiny part of the lug/ramp that it may have not been timed correctly.

I can't remember the details for sure, Scheumann had an article on it and a "timing kit" at one point.

Long story short, there's supposedly a fine point that the back of the lugs hit the frame.  

If it was done at the factory, I'd just contact them and send it back.  If they warranty it due to timing or metal failure you're good.

If they don't you're probably not out more than having a 'smith doing it.

 

Or you could buy a new barrel, do some research and get the proper tools and do it yourself.

I've done several of mine, and had Benny Hill do a couple for me.  Both came out great.

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i have 2015 build SVI, and my barrel gone broken about same way.

 

I have bought gun from shop 2017, after that shot about 24k.

 

it looks that svi don't have warranty at all, before after about 15k magwell crack and when ask from SVI, they told that warranty gone...

 

I try to explain that we in EU warranty start after buy, not from build...

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